Airfare Booked!

I'll be flying Continental Airlines. 21 hr, 30min with 8 hr, 30 min of layover to Bangkok by way of Hartford -> Newark -> Tokyo -> Bangkok. Then on the way back it's 20hr, 12 min with 6 hr, 10 min of layover in the opposite way. NSF will reimburse air travel with American flagship carriers (this part was kind of hazy so I found a round-trip flight that didn't mix carriers with international ones), and for leaving from Hartford the amount is $1750.

While I was booking it, I came across the travel insurance option. I went for it, better safe than sorry I suppose. But I ran into some pretty interesting sections, like:

Benefits	Maximum Limit per Person
Trip Cancellation	100% of Trip Cost
Trip Interruption	100% of Trip Cost
Trip Delay	$100
Missed Connection	$750
Baggage Delay	$100
Accidental Death & Dismemberment	$100,000 per policy

And...


"ACCIDENTAL DEATH & DISMEMBERMENT The Company will pay the percentage of the Principal Sum shown in the Table of Losses when You, as a result of an Accidental Injury occurring during the Covered Trip, sustain a Loss shown in the Table below. The Loss must occur within 181 days after the date of the Accident causing the Loss. The Principal Sum is shown on the Confirmation of Coverage.

The Maximum Benefits for any one single Accident is limited to $15,000,000 for all persons insured under the Policy. If more than one Loss is sustained, as the result of an Accident, the amount payable shall be the largest amount of a sustained Loss shown in the Table of Losses.

Loss of	Percentage of Principal Sum
Life	100%
Both hands or both feet	100%
Sight of both eyes	100%
One hand and one foot	100%
Either hand or foot and sight of one eye	100%
Either hand or foot	50%
Sight of one eye	50%
Speech and hearing in both ears.	100%
Speech	50%
Hearing in both ears	50%
Thumb and index finger of same hand	25%

"Loss" with regard to:
1. Hand or foot means actual complete severance through and above the wrist or ankle joints;
2. Eye means an entire and irrecoverable Loss of sight;
3. Speech or hearing means entire and irrecoverable Loss of speech or hearing of both ears; and
4. Thumb and index finger means actual severance through or above the joint that meets the finger at the palm."

(From: http://www.onetravel.com/Portals/95/insurance/insurance.html)

I used to intern for an insurance company and I can definitely say that there are plenty of stories to go around when you're on the investigation side of things. You've got to wonder who comes up with this stuff, and what sorts of things have to happen to bring it to their attention in order to make it into an official policy. I don't expect a 5-hour layover in Tokyo to get that rough... We'll see.

One of the things about booking airfare is that a lot of the sites don't tell you that there will be $200 - $300 in taxes that are excluded from the final cost. Sometimes they don't include the fees as well. This leads you to believe a flight will be $400 cheaper than it is. A week ago when I started to consider my options, the average before it got into the extremely expensive region was about $1750 to mid $1800. Now, anything below $1900 is pretty good from where I'm departing from. I managed to find this flight out of a ton of others, but it leaves at 6 am in the morning.

I'll be leaving Thursday morning on the 3rd, arriving Friday night. For the return trip, the time zones work out so that I get on the plane and off again on Monday August 16th. I'm not sure whether the times reported on the website are in EST or local, but I would imagine it's local since the times don't add up right unless you factor in zones.

"JET LAGGG-glurghrghgh!"